Life with Duratrac's.

Oh well....The trip to Chicago was called off. Too bad. I didn't really want to go anyway. But. I did pump 'em up to 40psi cold. I have found these tires react to temps more than any tires I've ever experienced. When I put 38psi in 'em, I had given 'em about 20 minutes from the drive home from work. When they cooled overnight, they were down to 36psi. With 40 cold, I'm going to check 'em tomorrow after I get to work (32-1/2 miles) and see what sort of pressure I have. It is getting cool here. (54 daytime high, with rain showers) Couldn't chalk 'em @ 40 psi because of the rain. May try that tomorrow.

At some point, I'm going to have to set the pressure and leave it there. But for now, I'm intrigued to see what happens with all the changes.

 

Well....It's been a week since I've updated this thread. Nothing much to talk about. Just work work work! I've settled on 38psi. That seems to net best gas mileage, best ride, and best "chalk pattern". After issues with balancing the Duratracs early on, they seem to be vibration free now. I did have BOTH front shocks to start leaking early last week. They're off, stock struts back on with a 2-1/2" top plate spacer lift installed for the interim. I'm riding about 1/4" lower than the Toytech lift, but that seems to be OK for now. Now that everything has pretty much settled in, gas mileage is within 1/2MPG of what I was getting prior to the Duratracs. I'm pleased as I can be with that.

In 2 weeks, several of us have a weekend trip to Black Mountain off road park planned. (Harlan Ky) This will give me a chance to really try out the off road capabilities of the Duratracs. Very much looking forward to this!

 

I've tried 38 PSI the last few days and seems to be the best psi for my truck as well.

 

We took another road trip today. Our family owns some farm land in south central Indiana. We drove up to watch the last of the corn being combined and to scope out a few hunting spots. Gonna do a little Bambicide there in the coming days. 190 miles of road driving, plus roughly 2 miles of plodding around in corn fields while we were there. Filled up with gas upon returning home. With 38psi in the Duratracs, and driving ranging from some interstate @ 60mph, to a few dozen miles on rural back roads @ 30mph, we averaged 20.2mpg! I'm PUMPED. That's what I was getting with the (much lighter, much less aggressive) Yokohama Geolanders. Worth noting is the fact this is the first trip since the tires went on that I didn't have to run the air conditioner. That seems to make some difference in mileage. Currently, it's drier'n talcum powder on a saltine cracker in this part of the country, so no mud to contend with while off the pavement. Just dust and corn stalks.

This time next week, we'll be on our way home from Black Mountain Off Road Adventure Park in Harlan Kentucky. That should yield a bit more info on the off road capabilities of the Duratracs. But for now, I couldn't possibly be any happier with them. Good gas mileage. Good highway manners. They look great. None of the balancing issues I had early on. Approaching 3000 miles on them.

 

Oh well.....I'm either going to need a new tire pressure gauge, OR, I'm going into business selling home made air....

I've been almost OCD with the tire pressure in these Duratracs. Finally arrived at 38PSI as the gold standard. Same pressure front and rear. It's been 11 days since I set the pressure @ 38PSI. That was warm day, but not hot. The truck had set for most of the day, so the tires weren't hot.

This afternoon, after the truck had set in the shade for several hours. Ambient temps around 75. I decided to check 'em for some reason. I found 43psi in the left front, 41 in the right front, and 40 in both rears. Hmmmm. I aired 'em back to 38 and will check again in a couple days.

And I'm going to pick up a better gauge this weekend. Time to retire the $8.99 Advance Auto dial gauge. Or start bottling and selling air......

 

I've been running these at 36, then 38, and then 40. There's a difference in feel at 36 vs 38 but none that I can tell at 38 vs 40.

 

Same thing I'm finding......38 seems to be the sweet spot.

 

Funny, I am experiencing th same thing. Different air pressures almost everytime I check and 38 PSI is the magic pressure. I was thinking I should buy a new gauge too. I tested pressure with the 3 that I have an I get different readings....

 

I rummaged through my tool box and found a total of 4 tire gauges. There were 2 more at work. One of my employees had a couple in his truck. So 8 total....We checked pressure on 2 tires each, using all 8 gauges. We found that 5 of the 8 gauges read different pressures. 3 consistent. Not sure if those 3 are right or not. Just the same.....

 

38psi front and rear?

 

Yup! Front needs it with the weight of the engine/etc.....Rear works well with that pressure and isn't too soft when I do throw a load in the bed, which is fairly regular. If I was ALWAYS running empty, I'd be able to drop a couple or 3 pounds in the rears.

 

Gotcha. I'll need to try that. My biggest concern is that I'm getting 3 different readings from 3 different pressure gauges!

 

A good friend runs a hydraulic/pnuematic tool repair shop. I stopped in Friday on my way home to see if he wanted to go wheelin' with us this weekend. He's stuck at work, but when I started talking about my gauges, he volunteered to check 'em with his pneumatic test bench. The gauge I though was the best one....apparently IS....Only one that's accurate. It's a 0-200psi gauge. I used it to make certain I'm @ 38PSI on all 4 corners. The extra 3 to 4psi in the fronts wasn't doing my ride quality any favors. MUCH better @ 38. Below that, I get a lot of vibration on concrete highways. So 38 it is!

Once home, I got the coolers packed and loaded, all my trail gear (straps, chains, tools, etc) loaded, and we're ready to hit the highway @ 6AM. Headed to Black Mountain Off Road Adventure Park in Harlan Ky. This place has been written up in magazines and websites. We'll be doing the 15 mile "green trail". Black Mountain is the highest elevation in the state of Kentucky. Not far from West Virginia border. 3 Tacomas (so far) and the possibility of a couple more last minute entries. In a couple days I'll have the first REAL report regarding off road capabilities.

Oh well...Back to bed. Had to let the dogs out. Now I need sleep!

 

LOL, thanks for taking the time to reply on here! I absolutely dislike getting out of a warm bed to let my dog out to pee.

Which gauge do you use?

 

I guess the dogs dislike waiting 4 hours to get to pee, so we're all good! LOL!

The gauge I ended up using is a Blue Point (Snap On) 0 - 200psi long reach truck tire gauge. The old fashioned "stick" type. The digital gauges all varied wildly at different pressure points/ They were close at lower psi's, but as the pressure went up, their accuracy went away. One was 11 psi off at 100 psi. It was suggested I look into a digital sold through "Tech" tire repair products distributors. It's a model used by a lot of NASCAR teams. It is actually manufactured by Autometer, and is available thru Amazon.

$44 Auto Meter 2160 Tire Pressure Gauge,White

http://www.amazon.com/Auto-Meter-2160-NASCAR-Pressure/dp/B008CLPMZ2

 

Alrighty now! The Duratracs are now OFFICIALLY "off road tires". We spent the day at Black Mountain Off Road Adventure Area near Harlan Kentucky. Miles and miles of steep, rocky trails with the occasional mud hole. The Duratracs performed flawlessly. It's a 4-1/2 hour drive each way, so the highway manners came in to play. All the bugs are worked out of that scenario, so nothing new to report there. All good! We were on the move on trails almost 6 hours. Of that, mostly rocky and dry where pretty much any tire would provide adequate traction. But there were about a dozen instances where traction was at a premium, and a lesser tire would have struggled. One was a slick, wet rock stepped climb where front tires were hitting one ledge as the back tires were working another ledge. Grip was minimal, but a quick flip of the switch on the electric rear locker and the amazing traction of the Duratracs, and it was up and over the climb. Another was a innocent LOOKING mud hole that had apparently NOT been crossed in a while. It had quite a bit of muddy silt in the bottom. Had to mat the skinny pedal to keep moving! The Duratracs cleaned well, and dug their way on through to the other side. I was VERY impressed with how the sidewalls were able to get grip to pull me up out of several sets of muddy ruts. Others in our party would just have to "ride it out" once they got in the ruts. I could turn the wheel and climb out at will. That's a VERY important feature IMHO.

I've owned 4wds for over 40 years. In the past 20, not too much real "offroading"....Just driving in snow....I was a little apprehensive about heading back into the woods for serious off road driving. That went away in a matter of a few seconds. The performance of my Tacoma combined with the sure footed traction of these tires and it was a trip back in time to when I used to "get 'em muddy" 4 or 5 times a week! Just like falling off a bike! You never forget how!

It sure is good to spend your money and get MORE than you expected. Even better, this was my wife's first off road adventure. She LOVED it. On the way home, she was planning the NEXT trip AND making suggestions as to what other mods we "needed to make to our truck".

The day turned out to be incredible!

 

5000 miles, so back to get a rotation and check the balance. Wear virtually undetectable. And after fighting the Duratracs to get them to balance in the beginning, 3 of 4 were still perfect, one needed 1/4-oz to bring it back to spec. There is ZERO vibration for standstill to 80mph and all points in between. As was mentioned earlier, pressures are set @ 38psi front and rear. The off road capabilities are well above what I expected. On highway is about as good as it gets. After charting gas mileage, both before and after the tire swap, I've lost between 1/2 to 3/4 of ONE MPG.

I'm golden!

Now to see how long it takes to wear 'em out! And to get in some snow miles....soon enough.....

 

Note to self; Next time, do NOT let 'em talk me in to using sticky weights. Found 3/4 oz worth of 'em laying in the driveway while ago. Called and made an appointment to get all 4 tires re-balanced AGAIN on wed. @ 3PM. Not sure which one shed the weights, so all 4 need to be checked. I want clinch weights this trip.

 

I have never lost a sticky wheel weights. I think they just didn't clean your wheels and just stuck them on. Typically those things have to be pried off.

 

They took a sanding disc to the wheel before sticking them originally. That brightened up the metal so they would stick as well as possible. I had the tires rotated and balanced today. (5000 miles) The tire tech said they'd had a bad batch of sticky weights that tended to come off first time they got really wet.

At any rate, WITHOUT the 3/4-oz worth that fell off, the tire/wheel "zeroed" when it was checked for balance this time. MAybe that weight just knew it was no longer needed!

3 of the tires/wheels zeroed. One was 1/4-oz off. We fought these things at first, but they ride as smooth as a babies butt now! I'm 110% pleased with my Duratracs! While I was at the tire shop, I convinced another customer to buy a set for his Jeep Cherokee. The sales guy was so pleased, he gave me a couple $50 off coupons for any future purchase's. Wifes ride needs new shoes! That will work out just fine!